


Something to Talk About

by roseandheather



Category: Code Black (TV)
Genre: F/M, Interviews
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-24
Updated: 2016-04-24
Packaged: 2018-06-04 03:00:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6638593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roseandheather/pseuds/roseandheather
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><b>Man on a Mission:</b> An Interview with the CEO of Angels Memorial Hospital</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something to Talk About

**Author's Note:**

> Sometimes I spend a lot of time ranting to Iris about the three or four fic ideas I have at any given time.
> 
> And then sometimes, at absurd hours of the night, I write a fic that has nothing to do with any of them.
> 
> I'm sorry.

_**Man on a Mission:** A chat with Angels Memorial Hospital's CEO, Dr. Ed Harbert_

Edward James "Ed" Harbert, M.D., is not your typical CEO.

For one thing, he only became a corporate executive some ten years ago, after a decade-long stint in emergency medicine. For another, he is still a full M.D. - and yes, he keeps his license current, which is quite handy when he moonlights as a relief E.R. doctor at his own hospital.

And finally, his employees adore him.

Okay, perhaps 'adore' might be too strong a word. But it's not many Chief Executive Officers who get glowing reviews from their subordinates; while said employees are never short of gripes about his administrative decisions, those gripes are almost invariably accompanied by a grudging acknowledgement that, for an admin, Harbert does a darned good job of putting the hospital first and corporate interests second.

I sat down with Dr. Harbert a few days ago for a brief but highly enlightening lunchtime interview in which we discussed his recent engagement, how he started 'moonlighting' in the first place, the stresses of working at a public hospital, and what he wants for the future. Take a look.

 

_First of all, congratulations. I'm told you just got engaged?_

Yes. [blush] I'm rather afraid I did.

 

_Well now I have to ask - who's the lucky lady?_

Ah. [cough] My E.R. director, actually. Dr. Leanne Rorish. But I have to correct one thing; I don't know if she's the lucky one, because I certainly feel like _I_ am.

 

_How did you two meet?_

Well, at work, obviously. But we were never more than acquaintances - I respected her, and vice versa, but that was all - until a few years ago when we had rather a sizable tragedy at the hospital [note: Harbert refers here to the sexual assault of a resident and the murder of their locum E.R. director, Dr. Gina Perello]. I essentially dragooned Leanne into stepping in to fill the vacancy, and naturally that brought us into more contact with each other. Eventually we discovered that there was far more than a friendship blossoming between us, and we were both mature enough to take our happiness when we found it. I asked her to marry me six weeks ago, and obviously, she said yes.

 

_Was it an issue given your respective positions at the hospital?_

It should have been, honestly. It really should have been. We both had extensive discussions with H.R. about the ramifications of our relationship, but there was nothing technically prohibiting it. It's not in my capacity as CEO to overrule her medical decisions. When I'm on the floor with her, I'm just another attending, and she calls the shots. So she isn't directly subject to my authority in that sense, and she's high enough up the ladder that I can't unilaterally fire her - that would take Board action. So we filled out massive amounts of paperwork and then carried on with our lives.

 

_Is it difficult working together, especially given that she's the one in charge?_

Not at all. She's incredible. She's the best doctor I've ever met. There are things she does that make me want to pull my hair out, but I trust her unreservedly. I'm not saying we never clash, personally or professionally, but we know how to sit down and talk things out. That's really been our saving grace. That, and the fundamental truth that we respect each other unconditionally. At the end of the day, all the rest is superfluous. If we have mutual respect, everything else follows.

 

_Let's talk about 'being on the floor with her'. What brought that on? It certainly isn't usual._

It most certainly isn't. But that's Leanne's fault, too. She reminded me one day that 'down here, it's people' and told me I should come down to the front lines more often. I couldn't stop myself from following her advice, even if I looked askance at it. All the rest just came from there. Our E.R. is over capacity for eighty percent of the year. I don't handle the most critical cases, but I'll take lighter cases to help ease the load whenever I can. And as she is about so many things, Leanne was right. Being back down there on the floor didn't just remind me about the realities of emergency medicine, it reminded me why I got into this field in the first place. I _had_ begun to forget what the job was really like. Sharing their case load, even a little bit, has been invaluable, and has made me a better executive as well as a better doctor.

 

_What's the hardest part of your job?_

Wow. [he grins] All of it? In all seriousness, though, there's a huge tension between what we want - or even what we need - and what we can get. I have to keep my doctors happy, the Board happy, and the donors happy - because we simply could not keep the doors open and the lights on without the financial support they provide. As it is, everyone there works too hard and gets paid too little. Angels opened its doors ninety years ago and it's never closed since. That is something we're tremendously proud of, but it's also a legacy we scramble to continue every single day.

 

_Going forward, what do you want for Angels and for yourself?_

All I've ever wanted to do for Angels is to protect it. If we can get more money, more staff, more basic supplies, that would be fantastic. If we could slash the number of code black situations in half, that would be a dream come true. But at the end of the day, I just want to keep the doors open, the lights on, and the staff I have, because they are all the very best in their field and we absolutely could not do any of this without them. 

There's a sign above the main entrance that says no one who comes to us will 'be without care'. That's my goal. I don't want anyone who needs us to be without care.

 

_Finally, this is something I ask all of my interviewees - if you could choose one moment of your life to live over again, what would it be?_

[without hesitation] The moment Leanne said yes.

**Author's Note:**

> This is more a proto-fic than anything. If any of you have a question (or multiple questions!) that you'd like to see in a future fic of this nature, for either Ed or Leanne, please leave them in the comments (hint, hint!) I'd love to do a much more extensive interview fic for one or both of them, and I think it would be ridiculously cool if the questions in those interviews came at least partly from you guys.


End file.
